https://s3.amazonaws.com/nightjarprod/content/uploads/sites/192/2022/05/03130159/3.22-BRAT-CAL-WORKING.pdf
Now, however, the FNF has turned all this around and has stamped the "Noir City Boston" imprimatur onto the event, which occurs on June 10-13. They've recycled a (very) old graphic (looks like "Miss Noir City" from around NC SF #5) and tossed together a belated poster image for the show (we'll get to its actual contents shortly...) and are now dispatching pioneering noir writer (and FNF board member) Foster Hirsch to Boston to act as host.
It remains to be seen as to whether the Brattle will respond in kind by belatedly rebranding this series. As a tribute to the FNF, it focuses on only two of their actual restorations, and adds four films that seem to have been the brainchild of the Brattle's creative director. Here are the films:
TOO LATE FOR TEARS
WOMAN ON THE RUN
NAKED ALIBI
ALIAS NICK BEAL
THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES
THE GREAT GATSBY
If it leaves you a little bit inert, you wouldn't be the only one with such an impression. A look at FNF restoration efforts makes good sense as an organizing principle, but that notion is very underpowered with this lineup. FNF's DVD partner, Flicker Alley, is here with the first two titles, but they also have several other collaborations that could fit here, particularly the three noirs from 1947 either in their catalogue already or just about to be imminently released: REPEAT PERFORMANCE, HIGH TIDE, and THE GUILTY. (It turns out that THE GUILTY was screened at the Brattle in 2018 at the inaugural NC Boston, so you might leave that out of the mix. Likewise, the FNF restoration of TRAPPED played at the second NC Boston in 2019.)
But there are also the restoration efforts for the Argentine films, THE BITTER STEMS and THE BEAST MUST DIE, which could have been showcased. (Our best guess is that Eddie, having decided that he's not traveling cross-country during an uptick of COVID cases, probably dictated that those two films would wait for a time when he could be there in person.)
But there are also early FNF restoration efforts not yet incorporated into the Brattle schedule--we're thinking specifically of THE PROWLER and CRY DANGER, both from 1951 and which make a fine double feature.
An all-restoration FNF tribute could then look something like this (chronologically):
REPEAT PERFORMANCE
HIGH TIDE
TOO LATE FOR TEARS
WOMAN ON THE RUN
THE PROWLER
CRY DANGER
Of course the two John Farrow films from the above list could also appear as a double feature (if the Brattle was actually running these films in such a format, which they aren't...) and add some off-beat late-40s flavor to what would then be a quite engaging eight-film lineup.
The Brattle is showing a series of 75th anniversary screenings that include film noir and other genres, which appears to be something that they'll be doing throughout 2022. It's an idea that the FNF has somewhat strangely overlooked thus far--perhaps when we get to the fall and they have a longer series run likely in either Chicago or DC, they'll pick up on this idea and assemble a show that showcases noirs from 1947, a year often described as film noir's annus mirabilis. Such an approach might be worth using in the Bay Area next year for 1948--a year with its own plentiful crop of films noir. Given that the "San Francisco noir" concept is probably a little strained by the absence of a suitable venue located in "the City," a seventy-fifth anniversary lineup might be just the ticket.
And by then, this weird stutter-step with the Brattle will be a thing of the past.
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